Policy to remember victims hailed

Cathy and Simon Cowan of Taradale, Napier, with a photograph of their murdered son, Phillip Cowan. Photo / File

The Hawke's Bay founder of a trust that supports crime victims' families has welcomed a Conservative Party policy to introduce an official national day of remembrance for those killed by violence.

The Conservatives yesterday announced their support for the introduction of a national remembrance day for victims of crime who have lost their lives to a violent offence.

The policy was welcomed by Napier man Simon Cowan, the founding chairman of the White Heart Victims Remembrance Trust, an organisation that has run its own annual remembrance activities since 2011.

Mr Cowan set up While Heart after the death of his son Phil, who disappeared in a suspected drug-world killing in 2001.

Mr Cowan said he had previously discussed the idea of an official national day of remembrance with National and Labour, who had expressed interest in the idea, but was delighted that the Conservatives had taken the concept a step further by making it part of their election manifesto.

The Conservative Party's Napier Candidate, Garth McVicar, who is also the party's law and order spokesman, said the policy evolved out of a meeting three years ago organised by the Sensible Sentencing Trust, a group he co-founded.

Conservative leader Colin Craig attended the SST's 2011 annual meeting where the idea of a victims' remembrance day was discussed.

"When you're in a room full of people who have lost a loved one you can certainly understand the feeling within the room and Colin was certainly very empathetic," Mr McVicar said yesterday.

"That's probably when Colin started thinking about the idea. I haven't had to push it; I mentioned it to him and he was very supportive."

Mr McVicar stood down from his role with the SST last month to run for Parliament, saying the Conservatives offered a platform that best fitted with his own views and would enable him to take his 13-year campaign for law and order reform to a new level.

He said having a day set aside to officially acknowledge crime victims would be a significant step towards putting victims at the centre of the justice system.

"Acknowledgement is a huge step in that direction of trying to balance the justice system."

Support for the Conservatives has been tracking up in opinion polls as this week's election approaches, and Mr McVicar's No3 placing on the party's list assures him of a seat in Parliament if it tops 5 per cent of the party vote on Saturday.

"It looks like the Conservatives are going to get over the line and if they do it will be one of the things they push in Parliament it will certainly be one of the things I'll be passionate about," he said.

Mr Cowan's trust has promoted September 25 as White Heart Day and this year's remembrance activities would include taking a message of "resilience and responsibility" to a group of Hawke's Bay primary school children.

It was hoped the school activity could be expanded as part of an effort to reduce the impact of crime through education, Mr Cowan said.

"If people treat themselves well, and treat their peers well, all of a sudden we've prevented future victims, and that's the thrust of what we're trying to do - to get people to appreciate others, and themselves, more."